Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
If you like it the way it is, then keep it that way. If you want to you can make a more accurate representation of one using the actual name of an Acclamator II. I’ll help ya find one.
“JW Darkhurst”
While I understand your frustration at the Acclamator II’s name origin vs actual ship, what would you suggest that a “carrier” ship even do in this game? How would it/could it work? Since she’s an English ship, I feel that a purely attack-oriented gunship would best represent a class of star destroyer, in this instance.
I’ll quibble with you on this. It’s not a carrier, it’s a transport, significant difference I think. A carrier implies that it’s carrying other ships, or something along the line. A Venator would be a carrier. The Acclamator II is a transport, which means it’s taking stuff from one place to another, sometimes people, sometimes regular cargo, not other smaller ships.
Small rant aside, what I think it could do would be either a not as good Dover, or a scaled up Lady Provost. Loose the Battleship keyword, up the cargo to like 5 or 6 (or maybe even 7). Cannons and movement could more or less stay the same.
Another option is to make it more like the Akua Lapua, but still with lots of cargo, something like this:
Acclamator II
Masts: 4
Cannons: 4S-3S-3S-4S
Cargo: 6
Movement: L
Ability: Crew do not take up cargo space on this ship. This ship may be assigned up to 3 crew.
WOW!!!! That might be the most loaded ship ever to sail! The Santisima Trinidad has 20 total cannons, AND the Endeavour’s ability! O_O I think 15 extra cannons is the new record, if my English HMS Dreadnought from CG1 was the record holder at 10 extra and 15 total. So that’s up to 40 masts eliminated in one turn! (Just like 40 Blows to the Skull with the Zeus, but that was with an extra action and copying Longship/Endeavour) With an extra action, up to *80* masts eliminated in one turn!!!! XD O_O (beyond unlikely, but still, you may have set a new “potential damage output” record here in this game)
Heh, I think it also had one of my Master Gunner crew on her, which if the dice fall right would have made her cannons Extended range for a turn…. I think that was only possible becasue of the Cargo Masters giving her an additional 2 cargo spaces, which gave the Spanish 5 spots to play around with…..
This is only the second time the ST has seen use, with the first being last years game. In that one she didn’t shine too well, as I don’t think I optimized her properly.
Went on a little hiatus, but now we back! Report 15 is now up!
I must say that the Acclamator II’s flavor text confuses me. I would think of a “full crew” as perhaps 4 crew, or at least captain/helmsman/oarsman for 2 spaces. Extra weaponry would be equipment or maybe specialists/etc, all of which are likely to take up cargo spaces. It feels like the ship should have 5 or 6 total cargo spaces, which of course would have to bump the cost up by quite a lot, probably 25 or more points due to the insanely good Battleship keyword.
It’s not one of my favorites of his so far. It’s based off of (or takes a name from) a Star Wars ship that was used primarily as a transport ship, and only really fought when it had to.
JW is gonna give me a new one for suggesting it, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a redesign from the keel up.
@Captain Plunder: Nice! I’ve used duplicate ships to bring most of my first custom Pirates set off of the paper, and I’m doing the same with my second.
VASSAL can be more than a source for templates (though I’m not sure what you mean when you say that). You can use the module to test out ships, see how they perform, etc.
I think Vendari put this on indefinite hiatus cause he couldn’t effectively run it. I think he posted about it on FB and on Discord. I’m still down for it if and when the ball gets rolling again.
I think he floated the idea of a “VASSAL League” or something along those lines.
You’ve done a TON! I think you’re at 2 campaign game wins? That alone is a huge investment of time and effort, not to mention strategic prowess. All the custom sets, physical customs, custom islands, youtube channel, etc etc….
I suppose, though I’ve been outwitted several times in the games we’ve played. 😀
A thread like this one will be difficult for me to answer to, simply because I don’t like to talk up (or brag/gloat whatever) things that I’ve done.
That said, to add on to your praise, something I’m more or less proud of is an annual Campaign game, that’s going on it’s fifth year….. 0.0
“Captain Plunder”
In reference to homegrown ships, a few questions:
1. How do you do it?
2. What material do you print it out on?
3. How do you get them to print even on both sides say like for masts and such?
I am all about making my own custom ships, crew, and all elements in Pirates. I am here to glean from your ocean of knowledge, pun intended. So thank you all for being so helpful and friendly.
For your first question, I simply make up stats for the ship or crew in question. Take some of the ships posted above this post for instance, JW decided that he wanted a ship called HMS Trepidation, that it would be 3 masts, have 5 cargo, move L and so on.
The only ‘limit’ to what a Custom ship or game piece can be is your imagination. If you want a ship that goes insanely fast, has accurate cannons and lots of cargo space, go for it, just try to give it a point cost that is appropriate (something most custom creators struggle with :D).
Your second and third questions more or less go hand in hand, at least for me. Most of the Customs I make I write out the stats, flavor and anything else on paper first; bringing that ship off of the paper is sometimes tricky. Basically what I do is use duplicate ships I have and use a sharpie and other craft tools to modify them (usually just the cannon ranks).
I have experimented with making the hulls and masts out of cardboard, but cardboard can be flimsy and not hold together well, furthermore it’s difficult to make the cuts where the tabs to fit the ship together are. Thin pieces of craft wood have a similar issue, and I’ve tried to make a model with wood.
3D printing seems to be the way to go if you’re lacking duplicate ships to cannibalize, but for me that seems like a very expensive endeavor. I know some people at the Facebook group have hahd success with 3D printing, but I have no experience with that whatsoever.
As for artwork, there was a fellow back on Miniature Trading that used sandpaper, or something similar to take all the paint off of one side of a ship, usually the side with WK artwork on it, not the blank black side. They would then use craft paints and I’m assuming a steady hand to paint on their own artwork for their custom ship.
Long and short of it, making a draft of a custom ship (number of masts, cannon ranks, etc.) is very easy, but bringing it off of the paper for me is a little harder. 3D printing is the best bet to get a physical custom ship that you can hold in your hand, or use duplicates to meet your needs.
If you don’t mind not having a physical model to hold in your hand, then VASSAL is perfect for you, since you can just fill in the ship info with whatever you desire.
I like the idea of the Abnegation, she’d be useful as pat of a battle group, not a stand-alone ship. That said, I think she could be a couple points more.
I have issue with the Acclamator II, if only because I know what she’s based off of, and it’s not a warship, but essentially a transport ship. I would have liked to see a larger cargo hold to reflect that, but going full gunship is a very English thing to do, at least in Pirates, so she’s ok by me, especially with Battleship. 😀
I still maintain that Nicholas St. North (Santa Claus :D) might be a little much, since his keywords allow him to not take up point space on ANY English ship (as well as cargo space), and allow him to use his abilities on ANY ship.
Why is Lt. Thomas Theodore Tremaine 8 points?
Can’t wait to see the next Faction from Eldest Seas!
@Captain Plunder, firstly, welcome to the site! Secondly, if you really want to you can make you own terrain. Just cut out the shape you want (or trace the shape of an island you already have) color it in, and write what kind of terrain it is. I made several trade current terrain this way before I started using the islands from Spanish Main (SM) as trade currents, since the flip-side of those islands are blank white.
Official WizKids Trade Currents were only available in the last set, Savage Shoes (SS), which was NOT sold in game packs, but was sold in booster BOXES, which contained one pre-built ship from SS, and what amounted to three (or two, I’m not certain) packs worth of SS as well as a packs’ worth from Rise of the Fiends and Fire and Steel.
I have one official trade current, but I’m not sue how to post a picture to the forum here.
If you really want your mind blown, or enjoy ‘customizing’ the game, check out the Custom Ships thread, as well as the Custom Ships Organized thread, where you can find all of the custom game pieces that me, Ben, and a few others have made.
The end approaches evermore, Report 14 is now up!
Maellartach seems priced ok to me, given what the keywords do. This is one of those ships where the speed bonus from Nephilim will need to be addressed. I would recommend reducing her speed to single segments, so that you’re not zooming around at S+S+Lx2.
Moonfire might be too quick.
Backing up to your previous post, I think that the Irondale is overpriced, and that’s an interesting combination on the crew, with Marine and Oarsman on the same crew. I’d like to ask how those two would interact together like that, since you’re basically getting a Marine that doesn’t take up cargo space.
We’re approaching the endgame…. Report 13 is here!
Report 12 is now here!
Report 11 is now here!
The Americans tried to get the English to go in with them, but English concerns over the Pirates and the discovery of the French led to them not lifting a finger to help the Americans. The Americans also reached out to the French, but the French were actively trading with the Spanish, and felt no need or desire to attack what they considered an ally.
Report Ten is now here! I will hopefully be uploading CoEC updates on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
I don’t think I’ve ever opened a pack of Crimson Coast. I think every Crimson Coast piece I have has either come in a trade or an eBay sale.
Dinos rule. 😀
Nice ideas, I think myself and both of my brothers have had a pirates themed birthday, granted when were much younger and didn’t know about the game.
Indeed, the American-Spanish conflict dominates most of the game, even into the end stages. They weren’t the only ones fighting, as the English and French conflicts had a major effect on what those two factions did, I just didn’t get as many shots of it as the Spanish-American, since it directly involved one of my fleets.
Huzzah and celebrations, report Nine is now up!
Indeed, the Spanish fleet is large, but just wait….. 😀
I’m not sure why the Cursed did what they did, but I do agree.
I think the Gui did roll for the reef, but I’m not sure now what happened after, or how she took no damage. It was something I was thinking about while making the report, and I can only assume I allowed them to explore the wreck if any part of the ship touched any part of the wreck. So I assume that the Gui touched a mast or something of the wreck and didn’t actually touch the reef.
They are rich indeed, and i was SO annoyed that he didn’t clean it up until the game was almost over. All those coins are medicine resource that the Spanish have stored at trading port on Pride rock…..
reaching into the center of the table was sometimes annoying and difficult, but it wasn’t as bad as it has been in previous years.It’s finally here! Report 8 is now up!
Been a hot month (literally, I live in SoCal :D) since I made a report or any sizeable update to this years CoEC, and I am sad for that. 🙁 A few real life issues forced a week-long hiatus for the game, along with some health scares (not me, but family related). So. September is almost upon us, and I will try to get the rest of the reports out before October. Ambitious perhaps but I think it will be possible. I only have 948 pictures to go through…….. Oh good gravy, what have I done? 😀
Stay tuned for more!
I don’t really do much ‘fancy’ stuff with my collection, other than leaving masts in the water for physical campaign games.
Commodore Jackson will end up more expensive than he already is. The combination of Privateer and royal Officer might just be too good. Add in his captain and World-Hating abilities and he’s practically a super crew.
If the “Crew of any nationality may use their abilities on this ship” ability is 3 points, then I think that Privateer could be 2, or the same. With that now said, Lt. Carruthers would see his point cost go up to 8-9 points.
Springfield might actually be okay at 5. Any more and he might not be worth it.
Also, I like the twists and turns the flavor text is taking, much intrigue.
I feel that the Avenger could be just a bit quicker. I’m not a fan of fivers with S speed, unless like the SM Acorazado, they’re a cut above the rest. The Avenger doesn’t strike me as a cut above the rest.
Bluebeard could be a point or two more expensive. I’m not a point cost expert, but Privateer and royal Officer combined could be about 5 points. The cannon bonus ability is worth 6, so 5+6= 11, maybe.
“The Cargo-Wrecking, though very useful, isn’t much of a point booster either, especially since the Devil has all rank-4 cannons.”
I strongly disagree. If it’s useful, it has to increase the point cost. 6 cannons at 4L is not trivial, and a world-hater to essentially make them all 3L’s is easy to add (especially considering customs and not just DJC Fantasma), making the Cargo Wrecking ability that much more important and relevant. All that cargo could easily be used to make the ship a beast of a gunship.
I agree somewhat with JW, but I can also see you points as well. Crew with that ability have been seen at 4 points, so that’s whee I’d put the ability, which means the DotN is an 18 point ship before that ability is added. IF this was a Viking custom I would say it’s too expensive, but as it’s Cursed…. I’m not as sure what to decide.
I didn’t notice them as much on the first run though, but I quite like Jozeran and Xavier. Xavier especially would see use on some high-cargo ships to make them better hybrids. Actually, I think he’d be perfect to place on a ship with Hidden Gold.
Maybe it’s partly because they’re from Fire and Steel, but I certainly like the idea of flotillas using equipment/special shots, partly because they don’t have a “mast” to eliminate if things backfire on 1’s.
I would assume that a backfiring equipment would still have effect on a Flotilla, since there is no such thing as a free lunch. 😀
The SA certainly is a unique sub, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one as expensive as this one. Given it’s cargo and other abilities though I think it’s justified.
oooooh, I like that sixer VERY much. Excellent speed, and decent cannons, along with one of my favorite abilities. The negative ability would have to be seriously considered, especially when it reappears back home from eternal. In a regular game I don’t think it would be an issue as much since thee would be less ships, but in a campaign, with crowded home islands…..